Steuben County’s 14 Arrests Fit a Repeated Patrol Pattern

Five Indiana State Police troopers from the Fort Wayne Post jailed 14 people in Steuben County on Thursday, June 19, 2025. Six of those arrests were for operating while intoxicated, and the post also wrote 59 tickets and 23 warnings. The agency called the day an example of how troopers are “making an impact on their local communities.”

The same post had already saturated the Steuben County area on Friday, March 14, when 4 troopers worked a six-hour stretch, jailed 7 people, and logged 5 OWI arrests. Sgt. Wes Rowlader, the Fort Wayne Post public information officer, posted the June jail count the next afternoon.

14 People Arrested in Thursdays High Visibility Patrol in Steuben County

Read about our Troopers efforts below…https://t.co/P2fuJyuvoX

— Sgt. Wes Rowlader (@ISPFortWayne) June 20, 2025

Six of the 14 Arrests Were for Drunk Driving

Indiana State Police said the Thursday patrol used 5 troopers from the Fort Wayne Post. Beside the 6 OWI arrests, the agency listed several drug-related charges and one person booked for driving without ever receiving a license, with an open container violation attached to that stop. The other jailings were grouped as various criminal offenses. ISP did not publish a charge-by-charge roster for all 14 people, and it did not say how many hours the troopers worked.

The mix is a traffic case load with criminal add-ons, which is how these surge days usually pay out. Unlicensed driving, open containers, drugs found after a stop, and OWI sit in the same pile because the cars are the search. Rowlader’s post framed that pile as a high-visibility patrol, the phrase ISP used in the June write-up for a focused day with extra troopers on Steuben County roads.

The count traveled across the Michigan line the same afternoon. Steuben County shares that border with Branch County, and a listener there treated the jailings as Indiana’s problem, glad the cars had been pulled before they crossed. The geography is the point of the posting order: I-69 runs north through the county toward Michigan, and the Fort Wayne Post can put a short list of cars in jail without leaving its 11-county district.

Steuben County Saw This Playbook in March

On Friday, March 14, 2025, 4 Fort Wayne Post troopers worked the Steuben County area for 6 hours. An Indiana State Police news release dated March 18 said they wrote 17 tickets and 30 warnings, made 5 OWI arrests, filed 34 criminal charges, and took 7 people to jail. The charge list from that night is the same family of offenses that showed up again in June.

CRIMINAL CHARGES FROM THE MARCH 14 STEUBEN NIGHT

• Controlled substance: Possession of a controlled substance.
• Alcohol OWI: Operating a vehicle while intoxicated with alcohol.
• Drug OWI: Operating a vehicle while intoxicated with drugs.
• Marijuana: Possession of marijuana.
• Paraphernalia: Possession of paraphernalia.
• Never licensed: Operating a vehicle while never having received a license.

The next night the post moved the same model into Whitley and Allen Counties. Eight troopers worked 4 hours on Saturday, March 15, wrote 42 warnings and 15 tickets, made 7 criminal arrests including 3 drug arrests, and added 3 OWI arrests. The March 18 release did not treat Steuben as a special target. It treated saturation patrols as standing work.

We will continue to conduct saturation patrols, a crucial part of our strategy to detect and apprehend impaired drivers and stop crime.

Indiana State Police Fort Wayne District, March 18, 2025 news release

The release asked drivers to designate a sober driver or use a ride service, and it said every suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty. June 19 landed 97 days after that Friday night in Steuben County, with one extra trooper and twice as many people jailed. ISP used “high-visibility patrol” in June and “saturation patrols” in March. The cars, the charges, and the Fort Wayne Post were the same.

I-69 Stops That Did Not Need a Named Patrol

Steuben County did not go quiet between the two surge days, and it did not go quiet after them. Fort Wayne Post troopers kept logging felony-level stops on I-69 and local roads without hanging a patrol name on the shift. Several of those cases started as speed or a short chase and turned into guns or meth.

STEUBEN COUNTY STOPS AROUND THE JUNE SWEEP

1. June 11, 2025: Rowlader posts a short pursuit in Steuben County that ends in dealing and possession of methamphetamine charges, eight days before the named high-visibility patrol.
2. June 19, 2025: Five troopers jail 14 people, including 6 for OWI, and write 59 tickets and 23 warnings.
3. August 20, 2025: A speeding stop on I-69 near Fremont, just before 8 p.m., leads to a probable-cause search after troopers smell marijuana. ISP said the search turned up marijuana packages plus a handgun and a rifle, both reported stolen. Damarcus Rogers, 41, of Fort Wayne, was arrested on a felony charge of theft of a firearm and misdemeanor charges of OWI and possession of marijuana. Two passengers were charged with possession of marijuana. He has been charged, not convicted.
4. December 31, 2025: A trooper clocks a Dodge Charger at 105 mph in a 70 mph zone on I-69 just before 9:30 a.m. The driver does not stop. The chase ends when the car leaves at County Road 200 West and sticks in a creek. Dakota Carter, 21, of Fort Wayne, faces Level 6 felony charges of resisting law enforcement with a vehicle and criminal recklessness with a vehicle while possessing a gun, plus two misdemeanors. A handgun was found after it was tossed from the car. Angola Police and the Steuben County Sheriff’s Department assisted. Carter has been charged, not convicted.

Those I-69 cases are the weekday version of the Thursday surge. Speed, odor, a gun in the creek, a rifle reported stolen. The Fort Wayne Post did not need five extra cars on a named high-visibility day to fill that docket. Rowlader posted a marijuana and stolen guns arrest from the Fremont stop as a Steuben County traffic stop, which is how most of this work is logged when nobody has branded the shift.

What a Fort Wayne Post Saturation Day Looks Like

A Fort Wayne Post saturation day is a short list of extra troopers, a few hours, and a press tally of OWI, drugs, unlicensed drivers, tickets, and warnings. On Friday, August 23, 2025, the post ran the same model in Allen County under a nickname, Wolfpack Patrol, with 10 state police units. ISP said that high-visibility targeted patrol produced 3 OWI arrests, 7 drug-related arrests, 3 drivers who had never been licensed, 3 driving on suspended licenses, and one warrant arrest, with 79 tickets or warnings combined.

Allen County is where the post sits. Steuben County is the north end of the same district, on I-69 and the Michigan line. The Wolfpack day used twice as many units as the June Steuben day and produced half as many OWI arrests. ISP did not publish hours for Wolfpack or for June 19, so the two days are not a clean rate comparison. They are the same product with different labels. High-visibility, saturation, Wolfpack, and focused patrol all describe extra troopers making traffic stops until the jail and the ticket book show work.

Never-licensed driving keeps landing in every one of those tallies. March 14 in Steuben, June 19 in Steuben, the August Wolfpack in Allen, and the Thanksgiving week district blitz all flagged people who had never received a license. That charge is how a traffic stop becomes a jailing when there is no OWI and no dope in the car, and the post keeps finding it when it floods a county for a night.

The Two Steuben Days Did Not Look the Same

June was heavier on tickets and jailings. March was heavier on warnings and on a published charge count. Put the two Steuben saturation days next to each other and the shape of the work holds even as the mix shifts.

TWO STEUBEN SATURATION DAYS

June’s 59 tickets were more than three times March’s 17. Warnings ran the other way, 30 on the March Friday night and 23 in June. OWI barely moved, 5 then 6, which is the offense these days are built to catch. The jail count doubled, from 7 to 14, with one more trooper on the road and no public hour count for the Thursday. ISP also withheld a full June charge list, so the 34 March charges have no pair.

The warning-to-ticket flip is the clearest change. March read as a night of contacts that often ended in a warning. June read as a day that ended at the jail and in the citation book. Both still sat on OWI, drugs, and people who had never been licensed. Both were Fort Wayne Post troopers in Steuben County. Both were followed by a statement that the agency would keep doing this.

Thanksgiving Week Put 11 Counties on the Same Roster

The Fort Wayne Post covers an 11-county district that includes Steuben, DeKalb, and LaGrange Counties. Over Thanksgiving week 2025 it ran the surge at district scale instead of as a one-county Thursday. On Monday, November 24, troopers issued 40 tickets and 37 warnings, stopped 6 drivers with suspended licenses, found 1 driver who had never been licensed, arrested a wanted person, and investigated a crash. That Monday was billed as a reckless-driving blitz.

A second wave from Wednesday through Friday targeted impaired and dangerous drivers. Troopers wrote 32 tickets and 133 warnings, made 12 drug-related arrests, and arrested 1 habitual traffic violator, 1 wanted driver, and 1 person for OWI. Across those four weekdays the post logged 72 tickets and 170 warnings, 242 in all, plus 16 named arrests. ISP did not break those figures out by county, so Steuben’s share of the holiday week is not public. The district list named Steuben anyway, which is how the post talks when the surge is larger than one county.

Winter weather then took over the weekend. Troopers answered 28 crashes, 23 slide-offs, and 17 stranded or abandoned vehicles. That is the other half of the same roads. Named saturation days hunt OWI and drugs. Unnamed winter days hunt cars in ditches. The Fort Wayne Post publishes both as proof of presence, and Steuben stays on the map because I-69, the Toll Road’s east end, and the Michigan line all cut through the county.

A First Solo Patrol Then Pulled 73 Grams in Steuben

On February 23, 2026, Rowlader posted that a probationary trooper on one of his first solo patrols had made a Steuben County arrest for dealing and possessing methamphetamine. The post said the stop took over 73 grams of suspected meth off the road. It was not billed as a high-visibility patrol, a Wolfpack, or a saturation day. It was billed as a traffic stop on a new trooper’s first time out alone.

Steuben County Traffic Stop Leads to Arrest for Dealing and Possessing Methamphetamine

An ISP Probationary Trooper set out on one of his first solo patrols makes arrest taking over 73 grams of suspected meth off the streets.

Read the story here👇https://t.co/bv7cB27AhQ pic.twitter.com/9J1xfYPtHe

— Sgt. Wes Rowlader (@ISPFortWayne) February 23, 2026

The Fort Wayne Post account is the running log of this work. Jail counts go up with almost no public argument under them, then another Steuben stop appears, then another nickname for the same extra-car day in Allen County or across 11 counties. June 19’s 14 jailings remain the largest one-day Steuben tally in that sequence. The March Friday, the June meth pursuit, the Fremont guns, the New Year’s Eve creek chase, and the probationary trooper’s 73 grams are the rest of the same file.

Rowlader posted the meth seizure as a Steuben County traffic stop. The June 19 surge had a name. The cars coming off I-69 did not need one.